


A Hotter Touch

by animeangelriku



Series: Puzzleshipping Advent [7]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Canon - Manga, Fluff, Friendship, Holding Hands, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, manga-compliant rather than anime-compliant this time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 03:26:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12950304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/animeangelriku/pseuds/animeangelriku
Summary: They have never held hands before. At least, not like this.





	A Hotter Touch

**Author's Note:**

> Someday I might stop writing these boys ranting on and on and on about each other. That day is not today.
> 
> For Grey, because I would still be struggling with this if it wasn't for her. 
> 
> You can also read this on my [Tumblr](http://animeangelriku.tumblr.com/post/168319974252/puzzleshipping-a-hotter-touch)!

_He's alive. He’s here. He’s… he’s here with us. With **me.** He’s **alive.**_

Yugi still can’t believe it. Even as he watches Atem glance at everything around them, his eyes wide as he drinks their surroundings in, Yugi still can’t believe it. It seems like a dream, like any moment he’ll open his eyes and find himself back in his room, a hand to his chest to reach for an inverted pyramid that is no longer there and only the lingering memory of a presence that would ask him, _What are you thinking about?_

But he knows he won’t. He knows that, no matter how many times he goes to bed at night and wakes up in the morning, no matter how many times he blinks and rubs his eyes, no matter how many times a small part of his brain tells him, _This is only a dream, it’ll be gone before you can realize it,_ he knows that this is no trick of his mind, no wishful thinking whatsoever.

Atem is alive.

He’s alive, and he’s real, and he’s back with Yugi. 

_This is crazy,_ Yugi thinks, but he smiles to himself. 

They’re currently sitting around the fountain in the town plaza, watching the people walking by. Atem likes going on walks around Domino City every once in a while, just to take a second to breathe and focus on his senses, and he usually asks Yugi if he’d like to accompany him. 

Of course Yugi does. He would be a fool to miss out on such an opportunity.

Atem looks over his shoulder at the fountain behind them, and he slowly dips his fingertips into the water.

“You’re not supposed to do that, you know,” Yugi says, and he grins when Atem smiles and gives him a conspiratorial wink.

“I won’t tell if you don’t,” he says, and it’s strange, hearing both his voice and Atem’s at the same… _volume,_ so to speak. It had always been only one of them speaking.

Yugi pretends to zip his mouth shut. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

Atem’s smile widens into a grin, and he turns his head back to continue observing the inhabitants of Domino City as they walk past them. 

A couple of children nearby start playing with a ball, kicking it and tossing it from one to the other one, all of them fighting over it. After a few minutes, one of the boys kicks the ball and sends it bouncing over towards where Yugi and Atem are sitting. Atem manages to catch it before it falls onto the fountain behind them, and he offers it back to the boy with a smile.

“Here you go,” he says.

“Thank you!” the boy cries, running back to his friends to continue their game. 

Yugi watches the exchange, awestruck. It hasn’t been that long since Atem came back, since he returned to their lives as though he had never left in the first place, and perhaps that’s why a part of Yugi still believe this is all one giant dream that he’ll eventually wake up from. For such a long time, Atem only existed to Yugi and to their friends; he was always by Yugi’s side one way or another, and they all knew who he was—or, at least, they knew he was his own person—and Atem interacted with them when he was in control of Yugi’s body. He existed to them, he was real to them. 

But now… now he’s not only real to Yugi and their friends anymore. 

Now he’s real to the _entire world._

And it just… still takes Yugi by surprise sometimes. 

They have to go back home eventually, so they get to their feet and Atem stretches his arms above his head, letting out a sigh. 

“Shall we go?” Yugi asks, and he receives a nod from Atem in response.

They make their way back to the game shop in silence. Yugi had feared, at first, that it would be awkward or uncomfortable, being so close to one another and not being able to communicate the way they used to, but he had soon realized that they didn’t need to have a mind link to understand each other. Besides, they have learned to enjoy the silence while also being in each other’s presence.

Yugi likes the quietness and the proximity between them. It’s a nice combination. 

“Are you excited about tomorrow?” Atem asks suddenly.

“Yes!” Yugi nods, grinning. Ryou invited them, along with Honda and Jounouchi and Anzu, tomorrow to his place so that they could all play Monster World together—luckily, there was no risk of dying or having their souls forever trapped in their characters’ figurines this time. They had, frankly, been a little hesitant, wondering if Atem would be uncomfortable playing an RPG after… the last time he had done it, but Atem had assured them that he was looking forward to it. 

“It’s strange,” Atem says, “to think that games can be… _just_ games now, that nothing dangerous will come out of the result. We could even play Duel Monsters and it wouldn’t mean anything.”

Yugi glances over at him. “Are you saying you want a rematch?” he asks jokingly.

Atem stops walking, forcing Yugi to stop next to him. He narrows his eyes at him, a smile curling his mouth. “Is that a challenge?”

“Do you _want_ it to be a challenge?” Yugi replies, trying to keep a straight face despite Atem’s widening smile. 

They stare at each other for a few seconds, both of them unwilling to be the first one to break eye contact. It soon becomes too much, though, and the two of them burst into laughter and resume their walk back to the game shop. It’s such a relief to Yugi that they can joke about Duel Monsters and about the first and only time they dueled each other without the heartbreak and grief that came with the duel’s aftermath.

“Let’s just focus on Monster World first,” Atem tells him, his laughter quieting down until it becomes a chuckle. “Then we’ll see about that rematch.”

Yugi’s about to say that it’s a deal—and the idea actually excites him, the prospect of each of them rebuilding their decks for a duel that will have no consequences whatsoever, a duel that will be purely for fun—but then Atem reaches out and grasps his hand and Yugi’s sentence dies in his throat.

Yugi swears he legitimately feels all of his blood rushing to his face, flushing his cheeks and making him lightheaded. 

They have never held hands before. 

At least, not like this.

Atem’s touch was never… truly solid. Yugi could _feel_ it, but in the same way he would feel a feather on the palm of his hand or a shiver down his back, even when they talked inside their soul rooms. 

It’s not the first time Atem has reached out to grab hold of Yugi. Sometimes they’ll be out walking and Atem will grab the hem of his shirt or jacket or whatever it is he’s wearing. Sometimes they’ll be at home, watching something on TV, and Atem will hold on to his sleeve, or he’ll scoot closer until his shoulder is pressed to Yugi’s. 

And the thing is that he’ll mostly do it without _realizing_ that he’s doing it. It’s like an unconscious reaction, like Atem’s body is trying to compensate for the closeness they had while he was inside the Millennium Puzzle.

 _Maybe it’s his body’s way of grounding himself,_ Yugi has thought. _Like he also wants to make sure that he’s actually real._

But this is the first time Atem has grasped his hand and oh, gods, it’s not like Yugi has never thought of it, it’s not like he didn’t used to wonder what it would feel like, it’s not like he wouldn’t lay awake in bed in the ungodly hours of the morning, nights after Atem had left, and wonder what it would have been like if they had actually been able to hold each other’s hand.

Atem’s palm is so warm and soft against his own, and Yugi kind of wants to tighten his fingers around it, but he’s afraid that’ll make Atem realize what he’s doing and what if he wants to let go of Yugi’s hand, what if that makes this awkward and uncomfortable when it doesn’t have to be, oh, no, Yugi feels like his brain is short-circuiting and three seconds away from melting out of his skull through his ears—

Atem turns to him, and he glances worriedly at Yugi. “Is something wrong?” he asks.

Yugi forces himself to relax. He’s overthinking this. If Atem reached out to grab his hand, even unconsciously, it’s because he’s comfortable doing so. And if that’s the case, Yugi has nothing to fear. 

“No,” he says, though his voice cracks a little and he just hopes that Atem doesn’t notice it. “No, not at all.” 

Atem smiles kindly, all worry gone from his features, and he turns his head away, glancing at the buildings and store signs and people around them. 

Yugi knows they’ll probably have to let go of each other’s hands when they get home, but they’ve still got a long way to go before they arrive at the game shop. Maybe they could slow down their pace so that they can hold hands just a little longer. Just because this moment might be short-lived doesn’t mean that Yugi won’t take it for all it’s worth. 

He slightly squeezes Atem’s hand, as slightly as he possibly can, and he turns away from Atem as the blood rushes back to his face. Out of the corner of his eye, he barely manages to see Atem looking the other way, a tinge of red coloring his cheeks, and a relieved smile overtakes Yugi’s mouth when he feels Atem squeezing his hand back. 

Perhaps Yugi is not the only one who was nervous about this. Perhaps Atem was just as scared of making this awkward and uncomfortable as Yugi was.

Perhaps, just like everything else they have gone through, they can face this together.

They make their way back to the game shop in silence, their hands tightly grasping each other’s.


End file.
